Therapy for post-transplant relapse of paediatric ALL is limited. Standardised curative approaches are not available. We hereby describe our local procedure in this life-threatening situation published in the journal Bone Marrow Transplantation(Bone Marrow Transplantation (2016), 1-8).

A total of 101 ALL patients received their first allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT) in our institution. After relapse, our primary therapeutic goal was to cure the patient with high-dose chemotherapy or specific immunotherapy (HDCHT/SIT) followed by a second SCT from a haploidentical donor (transplant approach). If this was not feasible, low-dose chemotherapy and donor lymphocyte infusions (LDCHT+DLI) were offered (non-transplant approach).

A total of 23 patients suffered a post-transplant relapse. Eight patients received HDCHT/SIT, followed by haploidentical SCT in 7/8. Ten received LDCHT+DLI. The eight patients treated with a second transplant and the ten treated with the non-transplant approach had a 4-year overall survival of 56% and 40%, respectively (P = 0.232). Prerequisites for successful treatment of post-transplant relapse by either a second transplant or experimental non-transplant approaches are good clinical condition and the capacity to achieve haematological remission by the induction treatment element.